WILL THE SOUTH DISSOLVE THE UNION? 



BY OEoito].; ^^. weston. 



The Union of the American States was form- 
ed, and has thus far subsisted, by the free and 
Toluntary association of the sovereign States of 
which it is composed. Alienations of feeling, 
)ocal and individual, have existed at all times, 
and have sometimes assumed proportions and 
exhibited symptoms, which have excited serious 
apprehensions. But all these alienations have 
hitherto passed successively and harmlessly 
away, and at no time, during the eighty years of 
-snr independent national existence, has anj' sin- 
gle State desired to withdraw from a Confedera- 
cy, of which the advantage to all its members is 
go obvious and so signal. 

During the present generation, the most studied 
and persevering efforts have been made to estab- 
lish political theories, and excite feelings, hostile 
**} the continuance of the Union, among the peo- 
ple of the slave States. These efforts, which a 
public opinion, perhaps unjust, but certainly ir- 
teversible, has attributed to the disappointed 
ambition of Mr. Calhoun, were directed first to 
the inculcation of the belief that the planting 
States, under our established system of custom- 
bouse taxation, contributed a great and onerous 
•disproportion towards the public burdens, and, 
subsequently, to the fomenting of angry and 
heated passions connected with the subject of 
Slavery. It is not to be denied that these efforts, 
in which many men of extraordinary ability have 
enlisted, and which have been persevered in du- 
ring a quarter of a century, have been, to a cer- 
tain extent, successful. Their effects, most marked 
among the friends of Mr. Calhoun, and in the 
State of which he was so long the pride and 
favorite and political guide, are painfully visible 
everywhere throughout the South. But as yet, 
in every Southern State, the friends of the Union 
have at all times outnumbered the agitators of 
disunion ; and they do so at this day, whatever 
appearances there may be to the contrary. 

In the case of Texas, principally inhabited and 
wholly controlled by those who had been citi- 
zens of the Southern States, long and patiently, 
and at lenglli successfully, pressing for admis- 
sion into th'3 Union, wc have a decisive and mo^t 



significant proof, that those who are urging the 
slave States to go out of the Union, have not yet 
arcomplislicd their work. Notwithstanding the 
efforts of agitp.tors, the majority of the people of 
those States do undoubtedly still perceive, as 
the people of Texas did, that they find in the 
strength and power of the Union the best guar- 
antee of protection, and even of existence. 

If tlie discussion in the free States of Slavery, 
and of propositions for its abolition, is offensive 
and dangerous to the South, it is abundantly 
certain that such discussion would lose none of 
its freedom and none of its acrimony by a dis- 
solution of the Union. The restraints now re- 
sulting from the comity due to sister States, would 
then cease to exist. The South, no longer bar- 
ing political influence in the free States, would 
lose the whole body of mercenary supporters, 
whom it recruits and maintains in them by means 
of that influence. It requires no great knowledge 
of the springs of human action, to jicrceive that 
the same Northern demagogues, who now find 
it profitable to cater to Slavery, would then vie 
with each other in inflaming passions hostile to it. 
Men who betray the rights and interests of their 
own section of the couiitrj-, in order to earn a 
slianipful title to bribes lield out by another, are 
little likely to be restrained by scruples from en- 
tering upon any course which promises person- 
al advantage. Thus the South, by di.<sulving 
the Union, would lose at the North all the sup- 
ports, good and bad, which it now enjoys there. 

If the South complains, or has reason to com- 
plain, of the imperfect and obstructed discharge 
by the free States of their constitutional duty to 
return fugitive slaves, it is quite certain that a 
remedy for the evil is not to be sought in a dis- 
solution of the Union, which would at once ren- 
der the recapture of fugitive slaves wholly im- 
possible, and at no long interval destroy the in- 
stitution of Slavery in the border slave States. 
Wise men will endure what is unavoidable with 
patience, and at least will not rush into remedies 
which are worse than the disease. Undoubted- 
ly, the condition of j)ublic sentiment in tlie free 
States renders the pursuit, within their limits, of 



e:.-^ 



•li)5& 



f'lgitives from bondage, a thanldess and profit- 
loss operation. No strijigenoy of law is likely to 
make it otherwise. The instincts of bnman na- 
ture, which prompt succor to those who are flee- 
ing from oppression, cannot be eradicated by 
legislation. The obstacles which are now in- 
terposed to the recapture of fugitives from invol- 
untary service must, iu fine, be submitted to as 
inevitable. The right itself of recapture falls 
with the Union ; and this right, however ob- 
structed in its enforcement, is still worth some- 
thing in preventing escapes. 

The position of the South is critical. Its fate 
is bound up in that of an institution which is 
condemned by the general judgment of civilized 
nations, and for the overthrow of which are c'om- 
bined the conscience, the prejudices, the fanati- 
cism, and the interests, of mankind. Tlius con- 
centrating upon themselves the hostility, or, if 
that word is thought better, the malignity, of the 
world; the Southern States have absolutely no 
power of aggression, and scarcely any of defence, 
and, if the protecting shield of the Union was 
withdrawn, would fall an easy prey to exaspera- 
ted and accumulated enemies. This is the real 
condition of the South, and it is truly pitiable 
and helpless to the last degree. The bravado 
by which it is attempted to be masked, the threats 
of dissolving the Union, made by men who hold 
their property, and even their lives, as they well 
know, only under the shelter of the Union ; which 
shall we most admire, the calculating arrogance 
which prompts them, or the amazing simplicity 
which is deceived by them ? 

Mr. Calhoun, in his letter of August 12, 1844, 
to our then .Miuister to France, states the motives 
of interest pressing upon England, to induce her 
io desire the overthrow of Negro Slavery in the 
United States. Let us see what those motives 
are, and let us see, also, if they are not certain 
to control other Powers as well as Great Britain. 
Mr. Calhoan says : 

'•One of the leading: motives of Eiitrland for dosiriu',' 
i\ [the defeat of llio aiiiiexntion of Ti-xas to .he Uiii eil 
;-iaies.] is the hope that, throi:-h her dijilom;iey and iiifla- 
I'lre, Neg:ro Slavery may I)- aholished there and ulti- 
(iiU'e ^ y, by cou^^equence, in iiie Unit'jd Stales, and lhrout;h- 
out the Whole of ihis continent. That its ultimate a!o i- 
tion li.ioughout the entire continent is an objed ard.'nily 
lies T .1 liy her. we have •Jecisive proof in the declaration 
oftli'.- r.arl of Aberdeen, delivered lo this Depar-nieni." 

Mr. Calhoun proceeds to point out, for what 
reasons, in his judgment, England desired to 
abolish Slavery on this continent; and he begins 
by denying that it can be attributed to '^human- 
ity or philanthropy." " / do not question" he says, 
" but humanity may have been one of her leading 
motives for the abolition of the African skive trade, 
and that it may have had considerable influtmce in 
abolishing Slavery in her West India possessions ; " 
but her present movements he ascribes to quite 
different considerations. Accorditig to Mr. Cal- 
houn, England has been disappointed in the ex- 
periment of free labor in her Colonies. He says: 

"Kxperience has ronvinced her of the lallai-y of her 
calculations. She hasfaiUdin all her objects, Tiio Bhor 
of lier ueiTroes has proved far less productive, v iiho i af- 
fording the consolation of havmi; improved their condi- 
dition. * * * Her tropical products have fallen off to 
a vast amount. * * * S > disaslrou-; hns been ihe re- 
Bull, tliut her fixed capital, vested i-i tiopical possissions, 



fstimatod at the value of nea'-ly five hundred niil'lnnji cf 
dollars, is said lo'siand on the brink of rum. Mm this is 
not the wurst. WUjIle this costly s'-lienie ha.> hud sncli 
riihious etfects on the tropical produelions of GreHt Brit- 
ain, it has given a powerful slimulu-, loilovved by a cor- 
responding increase of produci-s, to those .countries which 
have h:id the good sense lo shun her example. There has 
been vested, it is cstimiiled by them. ii> the production of 
tropical products,' since TwOs, in fixed capita!, nearly 
SI. UtlU.liOO.OtK), wholly depend.,-iit on slave labor. In the 
same period, the value of taeir products has been estima- 
ted to have, risim from about .$T'.i.tlOU.UUU annually, to near- 
ly «->aO,UUU.tJOO; while the whole of the fixed capital of 
Great Britain, vested iiicultivatina: tropical products, both 
in the Kast and West Indies, is estimated at only about 
S-<3l).0U(),OU0, and the val ue oi 1 he products annually at about 
SoO 000.000. To present a still more striking view of the 
three' articles of tropical pro<iuets, (sugar, coffee, and cot- 
ton.) the British possessions, including the West and East 
Indies, and Mauritius, produced in IS42, of sugar, only 
3.991.771 pounds, while Cuba, Brazil, and the United 
States, excluding other countries having tropical poss>'s- 
sions, produced O.OOO.OOO pounds; of coffee, the British 
possessions produced only 27.393.003, while Cuba ai-id 
Brazil produced !i01,590,l'i5 pounds; and of cotton, the 
British possessions, including shipments to China, only 
1 .7.443.^46 pounds, while the United Stales alone pro- 
duced 790.479,a7S pounds. * * * This is seen and felt 
by British statesmen, and has opened their eyes to the 
ecrors which they have committed. The question now 
witii them is. How shall it be counteracted? * * * In 
order to regain her superiority, she not only seeks to re- 
vive and increase her own capacity to produce tropical 
p oduclions, but to diminish and destroy the capacity of 
those who have so lar outstripped her, in consequence o' 
her error * * * Her main reliance is to cripple or 
destroy the productions of her successful rivals. There is 
but one way by which it can be done and that is, abolish- 
ing African Slavery throughout this continent; and that 
sVie openly avows to be the constant object of her policy 
and exertions. It matters Hot how, or from what motive, 
it may be done; whether it may be by diplomacy, influ 
ence. or force; by secret or opej' means; and whether 
the motive be humane or seltish. Without regard to man- 
ner. m-!ans, or nunive, the thing itsell", should it he ac- 
complished, would put down all rivalry, and sjive her the 
uidisiiu'ed su|)remacy in supplying her own wants, and 
those of the rest of the worlil. * * * The end [of abol- 
ishing Slavery iu Cuba. Brazil, and the United Stales] 
would be, that the supeiiority in cultivating the great trop- 
ical staples would be iraiislerred from tliem to the British 
tropical possessions. 

'•'I'lif-y are ol vast extent, and those beyond the Cape 
of Good Hope possessed of an unliiidted amount of labor. 
* * * It is the successful competition of slave labor 
which keeps the prices of the great tropical sinples so 
low as to prevent their cultivation with profit in the pos- 
sessions of Great Britain, by what she is pleased to call 
free labor." 

Mr. Calhoun may err in supposing that Eng- 
land regrets the abolition of Slavery in her West 
Indian Colonies. He may err in imputing her 
desire to see Slavery abolished elsewhere, wholly 
tp motives of policy, unmixed with motives of 
humanity. But there can be no doubt, either of 
the matter of fact that England does wish to see 
Slavery abolished everywhere, or of the import- 
ance of its universal abolition to the prosperity 
of interests with which her industrial prosperity 
is conspicuously identified. At all events, and 
beyond all peradventure, whether from philan- 
thropy, or selfishness, or a mixture of both, Great 
Britain, the first maritime Power in the world, 
and haviag island possessions in threatening 
propinquity to the Southern States, is decisively 
(;pmmitted, and by enduring motives, to the Anti- 
Slavery cause. The gentlemen of the slave States 
understand it well, and. for years they have 
sounded au alarm, neither affected nor ground- 
less, that England wishes to " Africanize " Cuba, 
and surround the South with '■'■ a cordon of free 
I negro communities." It was to defeat this scheme 



3 



that, under. Col. Polk's Administration, tlicy of- 
fV-ri'd one hundred niillioii-^ of dollm-s for the 
jinrehase of Culm, and more recent)}- insligiUed 
conferences at Ostend, at \vlii(,h the same [inr- 
cliase was attempted at a much hipher price. 
We will consider by and by, in the iiro-rress of 
this discussion, wlio.se money it was wliicii ha.s 
lieen oU'ered with sii.'h n princely and uncalcnla- 
tins muniSci'nce. For the present, 1 refer to it 
Hilly lis proof of the intensity of slavelioldinjr ap- 
prcliensions, and of the niugnitnde ot the dan- 
j.'ers wliidi threaten Slavery. The most fornii- 
ilable Power on the Globe, with every invitin}^ 
opporluuity of position, is the known, avowetl, 
and sworn oncniy of the instiluiioii with which 
every .Southern interest is indissolubly hound up, 
and is so also (roin motives and cuiisidcratiyiis 
which make its hostility lixed, unappeasable, and 
eternal. 

All the orators and all the writers of the South 
adopt the views of Mr. Calhoun in reference to 
English policy. To quote- them all, is equally 
impracticable and unnecssary, and I only refer 
now to a speech delivered in Congress, Ajuil 2d, 
185G, by Gen. Quitman, a Representative of .Mis- 
6issi[>pi, and the owner of tliree hundred slaves, 
as the latest and most chiborate expression of 
these views. After remarking Generally upon 
" the vccidiar co?idi:ion of many nvijUtorint/ Slalca 
and Culoiiks, and the injluence wldch their condition 
inuat exercise up-m our own prospcriti/," Gqo. Quit- 
man jiioceeds to particularize ( 1st) Mexicjo, which, 
he says, •* can Le sai'cd onli/ ly the. advancing flood 
of our interprining ctlizim;^' (2d) Central America, 
where he says that, at present, ^'■European in- 
trij'.iesc/ieckoureziension,'' but wliere he Lopes much 
from " that patriotic band which has lately trans- 
plunted the principles of Democracy from the United 
Stales to Nicaragunn soil ; " (od) Cuba; and (-tth) 
San Dominijo, which '' A7/'a;/ye and yrotvsque pow- 
er" he says, " under whone stupid sicay that fair 
island, holding, iciih her commodious jiorts, the same 
relation to the Caribbean Sea that Cuba- holds to the 
Gulf of Mexico, is fast rclapsinj into barbarism', is 
sustained by mighty European injhunces in its attempts 
to exlenninatc the small ichile Dominican lie}.aiblic 
which still retains a portion of the island." 

Completing his survey, Gen. Quitman si<jni6- 
cautly declares — 

''All the rest of insular America is l-'iirope-^'i or ATri- 
caii Stuiuliiig her-;. am'Ulg ike sliUr<ineii of Am-ii.-a. I 
point to the surrouiidin'.; »C"'ii»^. Heliolil it a-; it is, ;uid 
tlieii look forward a few years, and coiileiiip'aK! w.iat it 
will lie. What rodeclions docs il lint preseiitl A «'iir d- 
startliii<; drama i< to be eiiiicled ; aiet are we. Ilie I'U iid 
ians of our coa'itrys weul, t'.i have no pari in ili-; |>ei- 
forinance ? Do "■•■ no", kiio w ihit tbe deveVppm ■iii. ihi- 
greatiie-i-. aiul THK S \ KKTV, even, of our beloved land. 
are deeply cojiceriied?" 

" Insular America ! " That has a stranpe and 
unfamiliar sound. It has nothinj^ in common 
witit the historj- and ideas of tliis people. It was 
Continental America which resisted Georffo III. 
It was in the name of the Continental Conprress 
that Ethan Allen demanded the surren<ler of Ti- 
Condero<^a. Of nothing is the tradition so fresh, as 
of the famous Continental money, with which our 
armies were kept on foot during tiiat great sir«;/;:;le. 
" Insular America.'' The phr.ise is new, and of 
alarming and dangerous portent. The idea of 



which it is the c.TprcsBion must Yo mot, and re- 
sisted and denonnced at the thresliold. Vf our 
Continental i>o.qsesslon8, we have not even explor- 
ed the one half. Willi the ))0S8ihlc exception of 
an occasional resting-place for our commerce in 
the vast Pacific, wo want no islands. "Insular 
.•lmcr(C(/'' may exist in geouTaphy, but should nove^ 
be allowed to form a part of our jxiliticH. 

The cause of Gen. Quitman's alarm is his be- 
lief, reiterated in a great variety of forms, that 
(treat Britain is inflexibly intent upon devoting 
this " Intnlar America" so near and so menacing 
to the Southern States, to the possession and 
domination of the hated race of Africans. Gen. 
Quitman says : 

■ ."^he h;i8 Ufi-n periiniipioi'fly enpaffcd in prolooiiif.; 
Spnirsli I) rniiny. [in ('nl<ii.| ond in llie unnalurul ai:d lul* 
li-Chnsi an ull'-iiipl to c«ia ilJ-li. throii.Kliout llie whole of 
Insular America, a hHrlj.iroiK liUck empire. Tin' perm 
of her plot was exliib.t> d in layiinr waste Janinioa, by 
di-.-iiroynii; llie proper relations betwt-en the whiit' imd 
black races there. • » * Hrr j)iol is furilier eX|io«ed 
hy he- iiuriiiU'-'s in San Domiii^'o. • • • Pursuing her 
schemes with intense punniM<; luul indefntitrable /.eal. she 
has used lier siroiiif iiiHuence with Spain to brine nlioul 
ihe ubolilion of Slavery in Cuba. Her inleui is plain. 
* ♦ • SIf desires to devote ihe American .vrciiipel- 
ago, the f.Teat inlands of the Caribbean si-a. to the iie'.;ro 
P'lee. ♦ • • Could this scheme be elfeeled. ihe object 
ol I'.ii;;!aiid would be al<aiiicd ; our progress in lliul (,u4ii- 
ter would be foievrr stopped The proleelorate of the 
black Kmpire. or Stales. ihu<» broufht into existence, 
would, of course, bo vested in Great Ijriluiii. • • • 
She will have ihe power to di^lurb, ai her pleasure, Ihe 
1X7" T-pnue of the ronti^unuf Snius, ^Ql and to s iiniilaie 
Ihrijuu'lioui our eiitirt: country tlie atritiiiion of that Slavery 
iiuesiion, wliioli, even now, is so j)regnanl wiih mis- 
i-hief to 'h" liu'ninny o^'our insiitu'.ioiis. • • ♦ None 
but the perversely blind can fail to pi-rceive her serpeni- 
like policy. • ♦ • The ncver-slumbcriiiif vi;.;ila ice of 
our arre.-'l commercial rival is at work, weavim; iiilric 'tn. 
nieslie> . anil planainif dangerous combinations to entangle 
and (I'^lrcy u:- '" 

Ob.serving that Spain, under Engli.=h influence, 
has invested the Captain General of Cuba with 
the power, as one extreme means of defence, of 
^'■emancipating the slave population," Gen. Qiiitmaa 
exclaims : " There before us, PREGNANT WITH 
RUIN, hangs Ihe dark and terrible cloud ! " 

Observing that he had " not time to present the 
many and conclusive proofs that the policy of Eng- 
land is such as is aUributed to her," Gen. Quitman 
quotes the following, from instructions given by 
Lord Palnrtrston to the British Minister ut .Mad- 
rid, in 1851 : ■ 

'■ I liiive to instinct your T.ordship lo say to ihc Spanisli 
.Miiiistor. ihiit the slave- loriii a liinrf portion, pud by no 
mea'.s an uniinportaiil one, of the people of C'nlia; and 
that siepi taken to provide for thttr emancipaUon would 
th'-r-fore. u.« far as the lilaei^ population is cone> rm-d. bt 
ijtiisr in icii,«o;i willi ihe reooiiiinendalioii maile by ler 
.M^ijt-siy'f" (loveriirn-^nl. ihat measures tihould be aJopted 
l<»r eoiitbiitJn^ ihe people of Cuba." 

The policy of England may be denounced as 
selHsh. It is, however, the dutj- of Governments 
to consult the interests of the governed ; and when 
they do so withottt invading the rights of others, 
tliey deserve praise, and not censure. England 
need not be ashamed to avow the motives which 
contr.)! her. Slie can make a clean breast of it, 
without incurring the condemnation of an impar- 
tial world. In the compaliiions of production 
and commerce, whoever makes use of enslaved 
labor is the natural enemy of all the re.si of man- 
kimi, and must not comjilcin if he is treated aa 
su<:li. Uo avails himself of an unfair advantage 



The robbery of tlie slave becomes the robbery of 
the freemtin,with whose hibor the slave is brought 
into rivalry. The working men of the free States 
of this Union do not, all of them, as yet, see that 
this is so, but they are fast learning it; and when 
the lesson is once learned, it will never be un- 
learned. The Government of England perceives 
it, and is acting upon it, and will continue to act 
upon it. 

So long as the Union of these States subsists. 
Slavery, as a domestic institution of a portion of 
the Confederacy, is entitled to that protection 
from the national power, of which it stands so 
greatly in need. If the Union is dissolved, the 
Southern States must protect it as best they 
may. England is under no obligation to protect 
it, but is perfectly justified in preventing its ex- 
tension, by any fair means, if she believes it to 
be antagonistic to her own policy. While we are 
governed by our own interests, let us not child- 
ishly complain because England also is governed 
by her own interests. Insisting upon our own 
rights, and pursuing our own policy, let us respect 
the equal prerogatives of other sovereign nations. 

In his letter of 1844, to our Minister to France, 
Mr. Calhoun shows an extreme anxiety to estab- 
lish a distinction between the interests of France 
and those of England, in reference to the annex- 
ation of Texas to the United States, and in refer- 
ence to the whole question of Slavery connected 
therewith. He says : 

" Previou' information was calculated to make the im- 
pression that the Govemmeiit of France was prepared to 
unite wiih Great Britain in a joint proiest against the an- 
nexation of Texas. * « * The President is happy to 
infer from your despatch, that the information, so far as it 
relate^ to France, is in all proliability without foundation. 
♦ * * You were rij^ht in making the distinction be- 
tween lh>^ interests of France and England in reference 
to Texas. * * * I liold, not only that Fiance can liave 
no interest in the consummation of this grand scheme, [the 
abolition of i^lavery,] which England hopes to accomplish 
through Texas, if she can defeat the annexation; but that 
her inlerest, and those of all the Continental Powers of 
Kurope. are directly and deeply opposed to it. * * * * 
What possible motive can they have to favor her [Eng- 
land's] cherished policy ? Is it not better for them that 
they should be supplied with tropicalproducts, in exchange 
for their Inbor, from the United States, Brazil. Cuba, and 
this Continent generally, than to be dependent on one 
great monopolizing Power for their supplies?" 

If the views of Mr. Calhoun produced any 
effect upon France twelve years ago, it is certain 
that they produce none now, but that that great 
Power fully sympathizes with and is actually co- 
operating with Great Britain, in resisting the 
spread of Negro Slavery. It is possible, indeed, 
that the events which have transpired since the 
date of Mr. Calhoun's letter, may have helped to 
consolidate this accord between French and 
English policy. It is since 1844 that Negro Sla- 
very has been abolished in the French Colonies. 
It is only recently that Algeria has been looked 
to as having the capacity to furnish large sup- 
plies of cotton, sugar, and tobacco ; and Algeria, 
it must be recollected, is a word of very elastic 
signification, and means, in truth, just so much 
<if Northern Africa as France sees fit to occupy. 
These new events, giving to France an interest 
to uphold free labor against slave labor in trof)- 
ical productions, certainly harmonize with, and 
have probably confirmed and strengthened, the 



personal policy of the present Ruler of France, ia 
respect to a close connection with England. Al 
all events, the fact is undoubted, that France 
and England are heartily united in the system 
of checking, obstructing, and defeating, wherever 
they can, the efforts of Slavery in the United 
States to extend its limits and power. 

General Quitman says t,h;).t the power of Spain 
in Cuba is maintained, "no< only by the morui 
wfiuence^ but by the active interference of England 
AJ^D FRANCE;" of the hated negro domination 
in St. Domingo, he says; that it is '■'•sustained by 
mighty EUROPEAN influc72ces ; " and of the whole 
policy of England, in reference to "the Slavery 
question," he declares that "FRANCE, SINCE 
THE ADVENT OF LOUTS NAPOLEON, HAS 
HEARTILY COINCIDED" in it. In confirma- 
tion of this view, General Quitman reproduces 
the following declaration, made in the British 
Parliament, not long since, by Lord Clarendon, 
Secretary of Foreign Affairs : 

"I will further add that the union between the two 
Governments has not been confined to the Eastern ques- 
tion. The happy accord and good understanding between 
France and England have been extended beyond the 
Eastern policy, to the policy affecting all parts of the 
world ; and I am heartily rejoiced to say that ihere is NO 
PORTION of the TWO HEMISPHERES, with regard to 
which the policy of the two countries however heretofore 
antagonistic, is not now in ENTIRE HARMONY." 

In confirmation of the same view, General 
Quitman publishes a letter, dated April 25, 1856, 
from General Cazneau, in which Genei'al Cazneau 
says : 

"I was commissioned by President Pierce, in Juno, 
18.51. to negotiate a treaty with the Dominican Republic ; 
and, after encountering many difficulties, through the in- 
trigues and false representations of the FRENCH and 
Eiigli.'h agents — who notoriously make common cause with 
the negroes of Hayli against the whites — the terms were 
fully agreed upon * * * * Meantime, an ALLIED 
squadron had beeir sent for by these agents. * * * * 
Under the specious title of ",he Mediating Powers,' 
FRANCE and b.ngland always hold the negroes in read- 
iness, to be let slip like bloodhounds on the whites, at the 
east end of Haytt, if they prove at any time refractory to 
European policy. * * * I cannot severely blame the 
Dominican Government, with the evidence I had before 
me that it was under stringent European duress." 

With the two great maritime Powers of Eu- 
rope thus combined in immovable hostility to 
Negro Slavery, it matters little what may be the 
views of the " Continental Poivers" to whom Mr. 
Calhoun directed a portion of his appeals. They 
are absolutely powerless in such a controversy. 
But in truth, with the possible exception of some 
sympathy which may be imagined to exist be- 
tween the nobles of Russia and the planters of 
the South, both subsisting upon the coerced la- 
bor of others, European opinion is most decided 
against the institution of Slavery. It is true that 
the " Continental Powers" have no such interests 
as England and France have, in the competitioa 
of free labor with slave labor in tropical produc- 
tions. It may even be true that they receive 
some advantage, rather than injury, by the cheap- 
ening of certain articles of general consumption 
by slave labor. These considerations apply with 
ail their force to the Germans, and yet it is quit* 
notorious that they abhor Slavery. An indus- 
trious, intelligent, reflecting, and emigrating 
people, they perceive that the black slave eithe'- 
j supplants or degrades the white laborer. To ne 



part of tlic civilized world, in fino, enn the slnvc- 
bolder turn fur sympiithy or supjiorl. The in- 
terests, the tiiornl sense, the religious educiition, 
tlie prejudices of mnulvind, arc all against liiin. 
Even if iie may justly complain thai a part of 
this hostility spriiijjs from envy and malicious 
fanaticism, or that the cunning aristocracies of 
England and Europe join in the clamor against 
a distant evil, with no better intent than to divert 
attention from their own opjiressions, the fact 
remains the same, that ujion him and upon his 
peculiar institution are coticent rated the oppro- 
brium and detestation of the world. 

The Southern States are acting under the i>re9- 
sure of two motives ; first, to ward off the perils 
which immediately menace their existence; and, 
second, to gratify their lust of power, and assure 
to themselves security during an indefinite i)e- 
riod, by enlarging the range and limits of their 
peculiar institution. The first is a motive of 
present necessity ; the second is a motive of fore- 
cast and ambition. 

The world will be at no loss to understand 
what is meant by " saving Mexico by the advan- 
cing flood of our enterprising citizens." It means 
simply the appropriation of Jle.xico, in succes- 
sive portions along the Gulf, after the manner of 
Texas, to the uses of slaveliolding. The world 
will be at no loss to understand the true cause 
of Southern sympathy with what is called the 
" redeeming " of Central America. Nobody is 
simple enough to believe that the gentlemen of 
South Carolina and Georgia and Mississippi, who 
have no interest in either commerce or naviga- 
tion, are at all in earnest when they take uj) the 
qutstion of transit between the Atlantic and Pa- 
cific, as a commercial question. They have nei- 
ther ships, steamers, nor trade. The South has 
no relations with California, not even, at the pres- 
ent time, of emigration. That country was long 
since overstocked with j)oliticians, and the la- 
boring men of the South are too poor to under- 
take so distant and expensive a journey. South- 
ern concern with Central America, as a question 
of transit, is a pretence too bald and flimsy to 
impose upon anybody. Doubtless, we have na- 
tional' interests connected with Central America; 
but for national interests the South has no eyes. 
Their politics are all narrow, sectional, and pro- 
vincial, beginning with the negro, and ending 
with the negro. They may put forward commer- 
cial reasons, if they will, for seizing Nicaragua. 
The world know.- better. The South wants Nic- 
aragua now, as a point d'apju/i of an attack 
upon Cuba, and by and by, when the African 
slave trade can be re-established, as a new thea- 
tre upon which to compel men who are black, to 
labor without wages for men who are white. 

Undoubtedly, it is of the first moment to the 
South, as a matter of self-preservation, to avert 
the Africani^.ation of Cuba. Undoul)tedly, it will 
be important to the South, in the progress of 
time, to secure an outlet along the Gulf of Mexi- I 
CO for the s^ccumulaiing numbers of their blacks, i 
rndoulitedly, it would place the institution of 
SlaveiT in a position not only secure, but com- ; 
mandir.g, if, possessed of the whole borders of 
the (julf, and of tL« magnificent islands which j 



divide the Gulf from the Ocean, it was enabled 
to control the products of the trojiics, an<l dic- 
tate to the ho[>es and tears of the commerce of 
the world. Itut by whose arms, by whose treas- 
ure, by whose potetilial weight in the diplomacy ol 
nations, is danger to lie averted from, and security 
and even aggrandizement assured to, an institu- 
tion condemned by the general judgment of man- 
kind, and for the overthrow of which the whole 
world lia.^ cons|)ired? If it be really nece-i^sary 
to jiay one hundred millions of dollars for Cuba, 
and if such a purch:»se was po8sil)le, even at such 
ft jjrice, is it not jdain that a Confederacy of 
Southern States, with which we are vainly threat- 
ened, could not command one-tenth of that sum 
for any purpose, and not one single dollar for 
su( h a purpose from any money-lenders on the 
face of the globe? Beyond a question, to even 
such a call, inonstrous as it is, the credit of the 
nation, bottomed upon the wealth and numbers 
of tlie free States, would be found equal. The 
gentlemen planters of the Carolinas and of the 
Gulf States may possibly, in some moments of 
chivalrous exaltation, imagine themselves to be 
competent to acquire the Queen of the Antilles 
by force of arms, after dissolving the Union ; but 
by no extreme of frenzy can they hope to acquire 
Cuba at the magnificent and even swaggering 
prices they have offered for it, except by laying 
hands upon the proceeds of the free labor of the 
thrifty North. Great Britain and France did not 
oppose an armed intervention against the slave- 
holding ap[)roi)riation of Texas. Possibly thej 
may remain passive, while the incipient steps to 
a similar apjjropriation are being taken in Cen- 
tral America. If so, they are restrained, not by 
any fear of the South, completely vidnerable and 
thoroughly helpless as it is, but by the powei 
which the Uniou derives from the po[)ulous and 
vigorous North. If they fcrbear or j)astpone tho 
Africanization of Cuba, .t is to avoid giving of- 
fence to the great Confederacy under whose 
shadow the South reposes. If impunity is hoped 
for the buccaneers to be let loose l)y the South- 
ern proposition to abrogate the neutrality laws, 
upon what else is such a hojjc based, but upon 
the respect inspired by our national power? De- 
prived of the protection of that power, would not 
the South be only too happy to abandon every 
project of aggression, if it could thereby secure 
to itself immunity from invasion ? Would not 
its high and defiant tones, ba \ved now by the 
fleets and the bayonets of the North, subside at 
once to a key the most dulcet and the most 
amicable, if left to its own resources, or, more 
correctly, want of resources? If new confer- 
ences were held at Ostend by the diplomatists of 
a Southern Confederacy, would they make them- 
selves ridiculous by offering millions for Cuba 
without ability to r^iise a dime, and menacing in- 
vasions without sailors enough to nuin a shal- 
lop? Certaiidy, these genilemen will still conde- 
scend to remain in a Union, to the resources of 
which they contribute so little, but the whole 
power of which they make available to objects 
peculiar to themselves. Certainly, these gentle- 
men will still condescend to spend the money 
and use the moral and physical power of the six- 



6 



teen millions of people in the free States, for the 
security and aggrandizwr.ent of their own special 
interests. Indebted to the sheltering wing of the 
Union for their safety, these gentlemen should, 
however, cease to afl'uct to complain of it as a 
burden. Vain alfectatlon ! The sun which goes 
down upon the Union, goes down upon Slave- 
ry as an aggressive and expandhig power. From 
that moment, it can only strugi^'le for life and be- 
ing and safety, and with the certainty before it 
of ultimate destruction. Its doom will 1)6 sealed, 
and no longer ambitiously dictating the policy of 
a great nation, and no longer wielding treasures 
not of its own coiitribution, and fleets not of its 
own raising, it will siiik into an abject suppliant 
for the commiseration and forberance of man- 
kind. 

It would be to suppose the gentlemen of the 
South absolutely demented, to Ijelieve that there 
is one particle of sincerity in their empty threats 
of dissolving the Union, or to believe even that 
they could be driven out of the Union by any 
imaginable act on the part of the Government. 
The Union, which is a great and unmixed bless- 
ing to all its members, esio perpelua! is an abso- 
lute" necessity to the South. Condemned to 
'^imbccilifi/" (I quote Mr. Madison's language) 
by their peculiar institution, they do not conceal 
it from themselves, and will not conceal it from 
others, by any amount of theatrical arrogance. 
Without fleets, wealth, available population, or 
possible alliances, they must give up the prepos- 
terous imposture of threatening to dissolve a 
political connection, without which they could 
not exist in safety one single hour. Tlie credu- 
lity of mankind is great, but not inexhaustible. 

No ! The South, or rather the Slavery propa- 
ganda which controls the South for the time be- 
ing, meditate no such act of insanity as a disso- 
lution of the Union. Their purpose is, not to 
leave the Union, but tp rule it. They are not 
madmen, as they would have us believe, but 
cool, wary, and unscrupulous calculators. Men 
identified with such an interest as theirs, as really 
weak as it is affectedly arrogant, men with two 
thousand millions of dollars in slave property, 
cannot afford to act upon the suggestions of 
passion. Whoever believes they will, knows 
uothiug of the springs of human action. Who- 
ever i)elieves they will, shuts his eyes to the most 
patent and con=picuous facts. If these South- 
ern gentlemen ar" mad, they have a method in 
their madness. They have a policy, and they 
have just avowed to the whole world what that 
policy is, in the platform which they have erect- 
ed at Cincinnati, and upon which they ask the 
country to elevate Mr. Buchanan to the Presi- 
dency. 

Whoever wishes to understand Southern pol- 
icy, should read that platform, in which it is 
plainly written down. It contains, not threats 
of dissolving the Union, but the commitment of 
what was once a great and national par^,y to 
the ap])ropriation of the entire resources of the 
Union to the single and local interest of Slavery. 
It is the speech of General Quitman, from which 
I have quoted, embodied in resolutions. It is 
filibu2tcrin£ digested into a code; a.ud not fili- 



bustering for tho spread of Liberty, but for the 
spread of Slavery. Alfecting to pronounce for 
"//•«« seas," it recognises only one sea, and that '* 
is the j^merican Mediterranean, around which 
cluster the hopes and interests of Slavery. Of 
the Indies, it can only see the modern, and not 
the ancient, the West Indies, and no^ the East 
Indies. It has no eyes for the Pacific (Ocean, 
none for the Sandwich Islands, none for the vast- 
commerce yet to be developed with Cliiua, with 
Japan, with Australia, and with all the regions 
of the South Sea. Demanding protection to 
" outlets," it has eyes, only for the Florida Pass 
and the Caribbean Sea; none for the St. Law- 
rence, with its magnificent valley of a million 
square miles. Not only not recommending a 
railroad across the Continent, but doubting, and 
halting, and speaking in uncertain tones and with 
contradictory votes in reference to any species of 
overland communication, it sees no mode of 
reaching California, except hj 'isthmus routes," 
4he protection of which will afford pretexts for 
buying or seizing Cuba, and for enslaving St. 
Domingo. It points to expansion in only one 
direction, and that direction is the Gulf of Mexi- 
co. Under pretence of controlling the transit 
between the Atlantic and Pacific in the interest 
of commerce, at the cost of a war which would 
annihilate all commerce, it makes the occupation 
of Nicaragua by the avant courriers of Slavery a 
canon of Democratic faith. Interpreting lan- 
guage by "the known views and purposes of 
those wlio speak, it commits the Democratic 
party to the»acqaisition af Cuba, and to the re- 
enslavement of the blacks of St. Domingo. " Cu- 
ba," says General Quitmajn, " coiamamh the entire 
trade of the Gulf. It is tile commercial and naval 
strategetic key of the richest products of the world." 

This is the systematic language of the South, 
and when they demand "permanent jyrotection for 
the outlets" of the Gulf, they demand Cuba. St. 
Domingo, saj-s Gen. Caznean, is one of that 
'' grand circle of islands ivhich enclose the Oaribbean 
Sea, and command our isthmus routes to the Pacific." 
Gen. Cazneau the Texan, like Gen. Quitman the 
Mississippian, feels a deep interest in commerce. 
It is an interest most disinterested, and ev€^ way 
remarkable. It is for the sake of commerce, that 
tliese gentleman and their associates, speaking in 
the plattrom erected at Cincinnati, demand that 
our " ascendency in the Gulf of Mexico " be " in- 
sured" at all costs and all hazards. This " ascend" 
ency," in any intelligible sense, and for every 
legitimate purpose, already exists. If we can rely 
upon Gen. Jackson as military authority, the 
''naval strategetic key" of the Florida Pass is not 
Havana, but the Dry Tortugas. It is not because 
the Moro Castle threatens our shipping, but be- 
cause the possible Africanization of Cuba threat- 
ens the plantations of Florida and Georgia and 
the Carolinas, that these gentlemen insist upon 
"ascendency in the Gulf of Mexico." What is njeant 
is not " ascendency" in .any sense which is mili- 
tary or commercial, but the linking of the whole 
of " insular America," in tho language of Gen. 
Quitman, to a " common destiny," " common inter- 
ests," and "similar institutions" — or, in brief, to Ne- 
gro Slavery. 



r 



As tlio wholo energies of the present Afltnin- 
is'i-.iiii)ii, in olicilieuto to the coininanils of the 
sluveliolJer^, have bucn directeil to pusliiii^ Slii- 
vi':y, !it evcu t!io luiziird of civil war, north from 
the [liinillel of ;:G° 'AO^ to the iiarallel of 41°, 
80 the same slavehohlers, speiiiving through the 
Democratic partj', of which they are the masters, 
now declare that they ^'^ expect from the next Ad- 
rainixtriilion " that Steps be taken for the protec- 
tion and extension of Slavery on the comiiient 
iiiid islands enclosing the Gulf of Mexico, which 
will certainly involve us in wars with all the 
ni.iritime Powers of Kurope. This is what these 
peuilemea " expect from the next Administration," 
and it is what thoy will obtain from it, if they 
can constitute it in accordance with their wishes. 
The North is sometimes deceived in its men; the 
South, never! The Cincinnati platform is only 
*.he expression, in a concentrated form, of the 
rioulo conferences ; and from the first, the real 
leaders of the South intended to nominate upon 
that platform the pliant I'ennsylvanian who trav- 
elled from London to Ostend, in order to give 
the weight of our first diplomatic i)osition al)road 
to propositions, to purchase Cuba at any cost of 
money, or to obtain it at any sacrifice of jieace 
and national character. The coy and amorous 
di'lay whicli marks the public adoption of Mr. 
B.ichinan by these wily leaders, will not conceal 
tiie secret arrangements made with him long 
^iiire, but now for the lirst time announced to the 
world. 

If these slaveholding States would really exe- 
cute their daily threats, and dissolve the Union, 
which they can only do by leaving it, our regret, 
great and sincere as it ought to be, would not be 
by any means unalloyed. We should be threat- 
ened with no more wars for the extension of Shi- 



very, under fho delusive pui.''e of "insiirhy an a.i- 
cendmci/ in the Gulf of Mexico;" wo Bhould have 
no hundred millions lo pay for Cuba ; wo could 
hope, in short, to be permitted to enjoy in jjcace 
the fruits of our own imiiistry. Leave us, how- 
ever, they will not; nil-! us they will, if they 
can ; but tlicy ought not, at one and the samo 
time, to rule us, and threaten to leave us too. 
^Jven the t)ld .Man in the story, who fastened 
himself upon the back of Sinbud, was more mer- 
ciful than this. He used Sinbad very hardly, but 
did not insult him l)y threatening to quit him. 

It is quite time that the true relation between 
the North and South was considered and discuss- 
ed with truth and frankness. That relation is 
really that of the protector and protected. The 
inherent weakness of the South is sheltered by 
the power and vigor of the North. The Union 
is of inestimable advantage to both parties, but 
absolutely vital to the existence of the South. 
It is stalile, because bottomed upon the essential 
and lasting interests of all the members of it. 
Of those who are now threatening to destroy it, 
the greater part are political Falstafis, while" the 
other part are passionate and excited men, who 
will be safely taken care of by the good sense of 
the communities in which they live. In a coun- 
try -where opinion is free, all sorts of opinion-; 
will be expressed, and among litem, some which 
are wicked, and some which are silly. Let us 
not be alarmed by every iille wind wijich blows, 
but abide calmly in the belief that passion is 
only elfervescent, and that the intelligent people 
of this country will continue to be controlled bv 
their interests, in political transactions upoii 
which depend the security and value of property, 
protection from foreign and domestic violence, 
and the solid assurance of all personal rights. 



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